1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to multi-user web-hosted data management computer systems and services for users to locate and exchange personal contact information.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art discloses various methods and systems to assist individuals in maintaining and updating a list of communication contact information for their personal and professional affiliations, otherwise known as “contacts”. This information primarily consists of the identity of individuals and organizations with whom an individual interacts for either social or business reasons, or both. Information may include name, geographic location, job title and organization, as well as a method of communicating with them: email addresses, telephone numbers, postal mail addresses, and etc. . . . “Contact managers” are commercial software packages and services that store this information for each of its users, thus allowing them to manage contacts and to locate other users within the service to connect with. For example, there are several web based contact managers available today such as Google, Yahoo! and Hotmail. None offer the advanced features claimed in the present invention for efficiently controlling the type of information disclosed and for an automated method of identifying potential new contacts, otherwise known herein as the “contact builder”.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,419, entitled “Network-based personal contact manager and associated methods”, discloses methods of permitting a user of a contact management system to authorize viewing of personal information on a user-by-user basis, versus via a class of user. It also has the user being notified when a contact's personal information has changed. It does not offer, though, the ability of accessing a user's email account(s) to locate and extract or receive a carbon copy of incoming and/or outgoing email addresses then cross reference a central contact database and determine if a contact exists in the system's and/or user's contact list and inviting them to register with the central contact database if the contact does not exist or granting access to their personal or professional information if the contact exists. Nor does it provide a “one click” information sharing feature for granting contacts permission to access a user's designated information. Instead, the user must follow, at a minimum, a two-step process by selecting the type of information and then submitting it. For example, a user must specifically select whether to disclose each of the following: travel plans, personal information, work information, birthday notification, and friend of friend information, and then they must hit the “submit” button (FIG. 1).
What the prior art lacks is an efficient one-step method for a user of a contact management system to designate what types and amount of their personal information to make available to other registered system users. Additionally, there is a need within the contact management services industry for an efficient method of accessing a user's email account(s) to locate and extract or receive a carbon copy of incoming and/or outgoing email addresses. These email addresses may then be compared or “cross referenced” with those in a central contact database to determine if a contact already exists in the system's and/or user's contact list; and if not, then to invite them to register with the central contact database or provide others access to their personal or professional information.